Rape victim crawls out of grave in N.Cotabato

KIDAPAWAN CITY – A 10-year-old girl survived after she was mauled, raped and buried in a shallow grave in a remote village in Magpet town in North Cotabato.

“Myla” (not her real name) was badly bruised, with blood oozing from her head and neck, when she sought help from a neighbor few hours after she managed to come out of a shallow grave in Barangay Kauswagan Sunday noon, her father James told Magpet police.

James said her daughter’s tale of the abuses she went through from the hands of her 21-year-old cousin Dennis Quilaton almost broke his heart.

Myla told her father the suspect dragged her to an abandoned and grassy lot where she was raped few kilometers from her house.

The girl said she struggled hard to get loose from the suspect’s grip. But the more she wrestled to break free, the more punches Quilaton unleashed on her. Then the suspect took a hard object and hit her head hard with it, then she fell unconscious.

Believing she got killed with the blow, the suspect threw her into a shallow grave and covered her with banana leaves.

But she survived to tell the her ordeal,” said Myla’s aunt, a village council member.

Due to pressures from the community and authorities, the suspect surrendered to a relative around 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

Charges of rape and frustrated murder are being prepared against the suspect, said James.